By ELOISE WALTON
Portimão is celebrating the New Year with nine days of festivities between December 27 and January 4 for residents and visitors to the council.
From December 27, Portimão will receive the Africa Eco Race contenders, who will set off from the city on December 29 on a 6,200km race to Dakar. For more information, visit the website, available in English at www.africarace.com.
On New Year’s Eve, Praia da Rocha will be hosting various DJs from 6pm until 2am at the viewing point in Praia da Rocha, opposite the Concord holiday apartments.
From 11pm, a music and dance show will be performed by Wok e Bidomania on a stage erected along Portimão’s riverside area.
At midnight, Portimão, Alvor and Praia da Rocha will host a musical pyrotechnical show featuring 4,886 firework launches per minute.
This will be followed by Brazilian music performed by Edna Pimenta in Portimão and the Latin American sounds of Cubaníssimos in Alvor’s riverside area.
From January 1 until 4, Portimão Arena will host Portuguese comedy festival Solrir at the Portimão Arena, with shows starting from 9.30pm each day.
Largest toast
Meanwhile, Albufeira’s Pescadores beach will be hosting a Guinness world record attempt for the largest toast at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
The evening’s concerts are due to start at 10.30pm with a warm up act by The Gift, followed by a performance from Norwegian hip hop band Madcon after the midnight fireworks display and Guinness world record attempt.
Quarteira in Loulé council is to host band OqueStrada from 10pm on a stage to be erected in Praça do Mar. This will be followed, after midnight, by popular Portuguese singer José Cid.
Monte Gordo in Vila Real de Santo António will play host to four days of music, each started by a local band followed by a headline act in a large marquee that will be set up along the beach.
The party starts on December 30 with Portuguese band Ez Special as the headline act. The following day Cuban band Los Angeles de La Haban will perform followed on January 1 by Flow 212 and DJ’s Flip D’Pal and Bodytalk. On January 2, Cuban reggae group Gente de Zona will end the party.
New Year’s Eve will be celebrated in Praça da República in Tavira with a concert by La Plante Mutante. Various DJs will also play music in the city’s main square on December 30 and January 1.
Residents and visitors to Olhão can see the New Year at a party in Jardim Pescador Olhanense, which will host a warm-up act by band Zeus, followed by a concert after midnight by popular Portuguese band Iris.
Faro is due to host a show entitled Maria da Fonte Apresenta Rock in Portugal, a rock musical that will include renditions of the most well known rock and pop songs from Portugal from the last 30 years. After midnight, the city’s Largo de São Francisco will receive Sevillian band La Selva Sur and DJ MrKool until the early hours of the morning.
For more information about New Year’s Eve parties and entertainment in your area, please contact your local Câmara.
